JAKARTA: Bank Indonesia (BI) is preparing to roll out the Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) in China, following its recent launch in Japan, as it seeks to expand the national digital payment system beyond Asean.
QRIS was launched in Japan on Indonesia’s 80th independence anniversary, marking its first expansion beyond Asean, where the payment service is officially available in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore so far, with plans for further expansion.
In its initial rollout in Japan, QRIS debuted 35 merchants, enabling Indonesians to make transactions by scanning JPQR Global using local payment apps.
Going forward, the central bank said that it planned to further expand QRIS coverage in Japan to make transactions easier for Indonesian users.
At the same time, a reciprocal implementation of system compatibility is to allow Japanese visitors to make transactions at merchants in Indonesia by scanning QRIS codes with their domestic payment apps.
“Since its launch six years ago, QRIS has become a game-changer for the digital payment ecosystem and strengthened Indonesia’s economic sovereignty. It has now reached 57 million users,” BI governor Perry Warjiyo said during the launch of QRIS in Japan on Sunday.
BI announced its collaboration with the People’s Bank of China to begin an “interconnection trial” between the two countries ahead of its planned expansion to China.
The initiative is set to facilitate bilateral trade, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises, while also supporting growth in tourism.
The trial involves the Indonesian Payment System Association, China’s UnionPay International and representatives of payment system providers.
The Indonesian central bank said in April that four local payment service providers, PT Rintis Sejahtera, PT Alto Network, PT Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis and PT Jalin Pembayaran Nusantara, had an agreement with UnionPay International to create a secure testing environment, or sandbox.
QRIS went online in 2019 to streamline QR codes across digital payment systems, allowing transactions through a variety of platforms, from mobile banking apps to e-wallets.
BI has since expanded QRIS’ regional reach by linking it to corresponding systems in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
As of June this year, Malaysia recorded the highest number of QRIS transactions at 4.31 million, which amounted to a volume of 1.15 trillion rupiah since its launch in May 2023.
Thailand followed with 994,890 transactions worth 437.54 billion rupiah since August 2022, while Singapore booked 238,216 transactions valued at 77.06 billion rupiah since November 2023.
BI is also looking at a possible deployment of QRIS in India and Saudi Arabia.
Due to increasing adoption among both consumers and merchants, the transaction volume of digital payments using QRIS grew 148.5% year-on-year to 6.1 billion transactions in the first half of this year.
QRIS previously hit the headlines after the United States cited it among what it claimed were non-tariff barriers to trade and which it used to justify slapping steep import tariffs on Indonesian goods shipped to the United States.
The US Trade Representative’s 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers said Indonesia had not apprised US payment providers and banks of its new payment standard during the development phase.
In response, BI senior deputy governor Destry Damayanti said in April that Indonesia’s partnerships in cross-border digital payment systems were based on the readiness of other countries, adding that the use of US-based payment system Visa and Mastercard “remain dominant” in Indonesia. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
